Looking for something to do other than constantly checking social media? Is there something more entertaining to do during your down time than playing games on your device, or watching television or movies? Are you feeling antisocial or wanting some quiet time?
Traveling or commuting?
Taking a sick day?
Bored?
Need to relax?
Wanting some escapist fun?
I have the prescription for you...READ! These are the books I've read recently and my reviews. Please comment!

NetGalley Top Reviewer

Saturday, October 11, 2014

The Hormone Factory by Saskia Goldschmidt

Why
is it that successful, powerful men so often justify their betrayals
and sexual misconduct while granting themselves extraordinary privileges
as they ruin the lives of all around them?

Inspired by true
events surrounding the family business of a meatpacking company that
diverged into a hormone "factory" in Holland, this novel relates the
research, development and marketing of a successful operation that gave
the world important hormones such as insulin and later testosterone and
the contraceptive pill. It's also the story of the men who were behind
this meteoric rise to wealth and fame -- and how it affected their
families and workers.

Twin brothers, Mordechai and Aaron De
Paauw, inherited the family's meatpacking business and join forces with a
brilliant German scientist, Rafael Levine, when they decide to create
Farmacon -- a subsidiary laboratory dedicated to pharmaceutical products
with potential for world wide distribution. The narrative from the
point of view of the youngest twin, Mordechai -- the head of the company
-- is told as he lies dying, the victim of a stroke that has left his
body a shell but his mind still active.

Mordechai is a
megalomaniac who wields his power with abandon and personal
self-interest as he excuses his every heinous act with any type of
justification. He's sexually reckless and immoral, faithless to his
loyal wife and to his brother seeing only his immediate gratification.
Impetuous and impatient, he treats his employees and Rafael as if they
were serfs in his little kingdom. When Hitler's rise to power and
subsequent war interferes with Mordechai's safety, he manipulates things
so that he can retain his control while sacrificing nothing to hold on
to his greed and desires. He's an awful man, without conscience or
empathy, and cares little about the plight of the Jews who work for him
or those who have helped him.

Will there be redemption for
Mordechai on his deathbed? He's forced to watch from his hospital bed as
his company is hit with scandal involving his only son. Powerless,
unable to speak, and completely helpless, events finally spiral out of
his control.

I really enjoyed this short but fascinating fiction
that follows very closely the story of the twin brothers from Oss in
Holland. I'd enthusiastically recommend it for book clubs and anyone
interested in the history of hormone discovery during the years before
World War II.